We require our Career Services personnel to attend trainings throughout the year regarding the different categories of employment. One effective means of influence for the students who do not want to disclose is to ustilize the student's former instructors who had positive relationship the student. Often that is effective. Another reason for providing excellent customer service THROUGHOUT the student's academic experience in the college is for the students to respond later when needed.
We have not dealt with anyone who did not want to report their enrollment status thus far. I am sure one will be in the future. We try to be sure a student is placed before they leave the school as it is difficult to keep in touch once they have left. As we grow this may be more challenging to do.
You will find that as you grow it is harder to keep up with students. The more you can start a relation with the student from the beginning of their journey the better.
Frank H.
Document interviews that have been set up for graduates, document if the student did indeed go to the inteview and doucument the interview outcomes.
I work in Admission so I don't encounter students that aren't willing to disclose their employment. I have been in my position for 4 years and haven't been made aware of any students not wanting disclose teir employment.
I often have to explain to students/graduates that this is a requirement not of the school, but of TWC. The majority have not had any issue with completing the form after I tell them this.
I have definitely found this to be the best scenario. The rapport from the beginning can make a big difference.
I have a question regarding the P vs the NP...Does it reflect negatively against the school if the student finds the job(s) on his/her own? I have several students who are completely self-motivated and can/do seek, apply and get hired on their own merit and determination?
Working with the student from the beginning of their training to explain what is going on and the requirements of the State always helps students to understand why you are asking for the information.
Frank Hammack
The key point is that the student is employed in the field.How they got the job, on their own or with the schools help, is secondary. I would encourage students to work on their own.
Keep ongoing documentation of the students status, if the student wishes not to disclose their job status, remind them that this is require by law from the school.
Be careful with this thought. It is required of the school to provide information on the completion, employment and placement rates but their is no requirement for the student to cooperate.
Frank Hammack
I agree with Frank, we discuss the reporting of employment verification early on so that our students wont be surprised when asked. I had a student tell me that it was none of our business about her wages, and I explained to her that it is vital to the schools ability to remain a school that we get this information. My school does not charge a graduate to refresh the classes they paid for previously and I do not hesitate to tell students that if they would like for their investment to be ongoing after graduation that they should comply with the state requirement to allow us to be around to help them in the future. This is mostly because of the tough economy and the lack of our economic leaders not creating any new jobs in our area that actually require any post-secondary education!
The PS-072a form should be completed for each completer in order to classify students. It is best to meet with the student in person and explain that this information is needed for reporting purposes.
Prior to graduating, each student at our school has an exit interview with each department. During their exit with Career Services, they complet a PS-072a. This helps us prepare the Enrollment and Outcome report.
The student might not have employment at that time and you can work to get them employed before the report is due. Use the PS-072A to record any employment the student might have.
one thing that our career service dept does here is before students go out on etern they do a 'match day'. they use this to get an idea of what/where the students want to work, what their needs are (location, hours, issues, etc) so they can best match them with a site so it is successful for both. At this event they go over what to expect on extern and what forms they will need to fill out upon solidifying their job. This way it is not something they are 'surprised' with at the end. they explain how the data is used and that this is something that they legally must report. typically when students really realize that this was info they were asking for when they enrolled in school, they are willing to give that info too.
Hi Bobbi,
Your procedures for preparing your students for graduation and placement sounds very good. The secret to successful placement of students lies in follow up with both the student and employer. It is also extremely important that your back up documentation is verifiable.
Gerald
We partner with the industry as well as the students to identify the placements. I have seen incentive programs at schools that enter a students name into a raffle each month when they report their working status after graduation. The program I am familiar with actually gave the students a one time entry form that entered them into the monthly drawing for a tool they could use on the job.
Misty,
While partnering with the industry is important, it is equally important that placement is a component of training from the day that students begin their program or course. Having regular emphasis on placement at graduation and including the importance of the reporting process throughout their training will make the students comfortable in complying with the schools need for documentation. While the raffle program sounds good, nothing can take the place of constant communication with the student and preparing them for after graduation.
Gerald Parr
This is an age old problem for our school. The biggest issue is loss of contact. The way we determine if a student is placed is whether or not they are working using the skills that they learned at our school. If they are employed and they did not need our training to secure the job we report them as placed out of field. We enjoy a very good relationship with our employers and they work with us to satisfy our reporting requirements by keeping us up to speed on whom they hire and the details regarding the graduate. In the rare instance that we have a graduate who does not want to speak with us we simply report them as not placed.
